Our tank has LR we collected from a local beach/reef type thingy full of it (No corals though not allowed here )= ) Awhile ago our tank had an algae bloom that killed off everything... well, nearly everything.

See, before the algae bloom we found out we had tiger pistol shrimp, and we thought only two. So we got a huge cleaner shrimp, and the poor guy died )= but after the algae bloom all of the shrimp were on the rocks and we saved and released around a dozen (1 had eggs 0.0) And then we cleaned the Lr with freshwater (yeah, kind of ruined it.) and then switched our substrate, which was crushed coral, to sand, and we were confident that there w ere no more pistol shrimp.

Then, my current cleaner shrimp (6months later), who had been attacked by a gobi, was in a QT 5 gallon bucket with three big pieces of LR (It is LR again lol) the poor shrimp is going to be blind and missing legs and antennae's until he molts... but anyways, my dad was feeding him some flakes, and then out popped a tiny pistol shrimp going for the flakes! We instantly grabbed the rock he was on and put it in a little half gallon thingy of water (yesterday) with plans to release him to the wild in the next couple of days. Well, when the cleaner shrimp molts we're releasing the Gobi (also caught) so no way we can keep this shrimp in the big tank.

But... I want him so bad. It was around 11 and I turned on the lights and he actually swam up to the surface and stared at me! Then he started swimming and crawling everywhere, having no fish with him has really made him confident. I want to keep him either alone or with a shrimp type gobi, but the biggest open tank I have is 3 gallons /= What do you think I should do? Is 3 gallons enough, or do I need to save up for a bigger tank? Thanks!

small fry

03-05-2011 03:25 PM

I don't think a 3g tank will work, even if it is a small goby. In a 3g tank you would/could have mojor tempreture fluctuations, the ammonia would build up very quickly, the water would evaporate very quickly as saltwater evaporates alot faster than FW, and your goby wouldn't be able to collect the nessesary oxygen in its gills that they get from swimming. Many gobies can happily live in a 10g tank, though, on the same note, many need a bigger tank. I would certainly get at least a 10g. Do you know what kind of Goby it is?

Too bad you live so far away. Tiger Pistol Shrimp are on my most wanted invert list. I wanted to pair one up with a Yellow Watchman Goby (My favorite Saltwater fish) that I may get some time next fall (after I return the damsels that came with the tank to a LFS).

baylee767

03-05-2011 06:39 PM

In the three gallon I meant just the shrimp Lol.

But yeah, I was thinking of getting him a 10g and maybe a YWG for the shrimp.

Smallfry that's too bad, around here there are millions of pistol shrimp in the 2-6 inch deep water we collect our LR lol can be a bit annoying if you want a creature that they eat... but they are pretty interesting shrimp! You almost never see the though, they hide unless it is either dark or feeding time.

baylee767

03-05-2011 08:03 PM

Update everyone!

This guy is NOT a tiger pistol shrimp.

I pushed in a flake for him and he grabbed it and pushed into his hole... then he did something amazing for a shy pistol shrimp!

He went all the way out and we stared at eachother for 10 minutes!!! He is definatly a pistol shrimp, he has a huge and a tiny claw, but he's not a tiger.

Actually, he's sand colored! Yep, we thought he was a tiger since before we got over a dozen (as stated above) but yeah, he's a .5 inch (assumed he was a juvenile) sand colored pistol shrimp with white tipped-claws. Not exactly sure what he is yet, but I'm certain if I feed him I can get a good picture. I'll probably wait for tommorrow for that, but any ideas as to what he (or she...) is exactly?